FOLLOW PHOTOS

No change of minority representation in new states

Syed Amin Jafri

The just-concluded elections to the Legislative Assembly and Lok Sabha in Andhra Pradesh have thrown up many surprises.

| TNN | May 19, 2014, 04.15 AM IST

The just-concluded elections to the Legislative Assembly and Lok Sabha in Andhra Pradesh have thrown up many surprises. TRS has stormed its way into power in Telangana while Telugu Desam edged out YSRC in a straight fight to grab the reins in Seemandhra. The Congress was virtually decimated in Seemandhra and managed to barely survive in Telangana. All but one of its sitting Lok Sabha members, including former Union ministers and chief ministerial aspirants, had to bite the dust.

But so far the minorities are concerned, there has been no change in their representation in Seemandhra and only a minor improvement in Telangana. In the 119-member Telangana Assembly, only eight Muslims have been elected, including seven from MIM and one from TRS. In the 175-member Seemandhra Assembly, only four Muslims have been elected, all from YSRCP. In the outgoing AP Assembly, the 11 Muslim members included seven from Telangana and four from Seemandhra. The only addition this time has been from Bodhan in Nizamabad district.

MIM has all its seven members from Hyderabad and TRS has its lone Muslim MLA from Nizamabad district. YSRCP's tally includes one Muslim MLA each from Guntur, Krishna, Kadapa and Anantapur districts.

Telangana has elected a lone Muslim MP from Hyderabad whereas no Muslim MP was elected from Seemandhra. TDP's lone Muslim candidate, N Md Farooq, lost from Nandyal, which has the highest concentration of Muslim voters in the entire Seemandhra.

This sorry situation persists despite the fact that a large number of Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies in both states have a sizeable number of Muslim voters. Only a handful of Muslim candidates were fielded by the main parties and these included nominees put up against MIM in the Old City constituencies. Even these few had no chance of winning.

Consequently, Chandrababu Naidu has to now pick an "outsider" to represent the minorities in his cabinet since there is no Muslim MLA or MLC from his party in Seemandhra. K Chandrasekhar Rao is in a relatively better position since TRS has a Muslim MLA and a Muslim MLC to choose from for a cabinet berth.

The Muslim representation in the two states is, thus, far less compared to the population of Muslims.

Muslims constituted 9.2 percent of the total population in AP. Their proportion is 12.5% in Telangana and 7% in Seemandhra. Within Telangana, Muslims account for a share of 42% in the total population in Hyderabad district and about 33% in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation area.

The results of the local bodies' elections announced recently are also not encouraging. The number of elected Muslim members in nagar panchayats, municipalities and municipal corporations, gram panchayats, mandal parishads and zilla parishads is far less compared to their proportion of population. Thus, inadequate political empowerment of Muslims in both the states, irrespective of the fact whether they are big or small, is a major issue which cannot be brushed aside by the political establishment.

Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes and women enjoy reservations in local bodies (panchayat raj institutions and urban local bodies) in both the states. Thanks to BC reservations, candidates from BC communities, including those belonging to socially and educationally backward class of Muslims (BC-E Group), have been elected in the local bodies. Otherwise, the representation of Muslims would have been much less.

Apart from political representation to Muslims, both the states need to continue various schemes, policies and programmes being implemented for socio-cultural, linguistic, economic and educational development of the minorities. These include bankable schemes for self-employment for youth, pre-matric and post-matric scholarships and reimbursement of tuition fees scheme, pre- and post-matric hostels and residential schools for minorities (boys and girls)

, training, employment and placement schemes, mass marriages, improvement of classroom performance of minority children, improvement of participation and performance of minorities in job-seeking and competitive exams, long-term coaching for civil services, construction and repairs to wakf institutions, digitisation of wakf records, assistance to divorced Muslim women, schemes for promotion of Urdu language, construction of Urdu-ghars-cum-shadikhanas, vocational training in Urdu, computer education and maintenance of Haj House and facilities to Haj pilgrims.

(The writer in an MLC and a journalist)

RELATED

From around the web

More from The Times of India

Recommended By Colombia

From Around the Web

More From The Times of India

Recommended By Colombia

Comments

Characters Remaining: 3000

OR PROCEED WITHOUT REGISTRATION

Share on Twitter

SIGN IN WITH

FacebookGoogleEmail

Refrain from posting comments that are obscene, defamatory or inflammatory, and do not indulge in personal attacks, name calling or inciting hatred against any community. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines by marking them offensive. Let's work together to keep the conversation civil.

Islamic State on Thursday officially claimed responsibility for a gun and bomb assault in the centre of Jakarta earlier in the day that killed seven people, five of whom were attackers.

Launching a fierce attack on the ruling Badal family in Punjab, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal urged people to oust the Badals from power, saying the once progressive state was on the verge of ruin.